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WB skips LCG talks with govt

Muhith asks dev partners to judge WB decision

Rejaul Karim Byron
No representative of the World Bank was present at the meeting Finance Minister AMA Muhith held yesterday with the development partners to brief them about the government's position on the Padma bridge project.
At the meet of the Local Consultative Group (LCG), a joint body of the government and the development partners, Muhith said there had been no corruption in the project and that the government showed "zero tolerance" for corruption.
The finance minister told reporters after the meeting that he had urged FROM PAGE 1
the development partners to judge for themselves the June 29 pressstatementoftheWB.
“We don't accept the World Bank's press statement. They kind of maligned us. We want a review.... We have told them [the develop-mentpartnersl to judge itfor themselves," he said.
Muhith also hoped that the three other co-financiers —ADB, IDB and Jica — would not suspend their funding.
The WB on June 29 cancelled its $1.2 billion credit for the project on the ground that it had evidence of a corruption conspiracy
involving Bangladeshi officials, executives of a Canadian firm and private individuals.
Yesterday's meeting was held to formally clarify the government's stance on the matter.
The WB raised allegations of cormption conspiracy in the Padma Bridge project based on some "indicative" namesfound in the diary ofan individual, a meeting source quoted Muhith as saying
No corruption took place in the project, the minister reiterated.
Citing an international lawyer who he said he had
spoken to, Muhith said the government's handling of theWB's allegation had been right, according to the meetingsource.
Earlier, the finance minister on July 2 and the prime minister on July 4 and again on Sunday in parliament said there was no question of corruption in the project as theWB had yet to release any money, and that the WB's corruption allegation had not been proven.
Representatives from the United Nations, UNDR Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica),
Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and DFID were present, among others, at the LCG meeting at National Economic Council at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in thecapital.
UN Resident Coordinator and LCG Co-chair Neal Walker represented the development partners while Economic Relations Division Secretary Iqbal Mahmood represented the government at the meeting.
Asked why no WB representative was present at the meeting, Iqbal Mahmood refused to make any comment.
A WB official, however,
has told The Daily Star the LCG meetings are usually represented by Country Director Ellen Goldstein, who is now in Washington.
Goldstein herself oversaw the Padma Bridge project, and that was why no other WB official was sent to the meeting, added the official, requesting anonymity.
LCG Co-chair Neal Walker, who was the lone speaker from the donors' side, told the meeting that they donors do not tolerate corruption and that they would observe the government's "zero tolerance" stance on corrupt practices, according to